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Published: September 6th 2008
You know the feeling when your boyfriend, or child is a participant in a sporting event? There's even a phenomenon bred out of that feeling...Soccer Moms. They have their own cars and everything.
My first time to Fenway Park felt like I was watching 9 of my own children or boyfriends playing in the biggest game of their life. All season I had to hear about each Red Sox player: their nick names, their stats, their strengths and weaknesses, their personal arguments, even personality quirks that have no effect on their game. "Pedroia the Destroya" was Rookie of the Year last year, and is still batting over 250. He even batted cleanup last week. Varitek is the first captain the team has had in years, and you don't say a bad word about him, even when he's in a slump, which he is right now. Coco Crisp got in a fight with Youkilis in the dugout. "Manny being Manny", is now "Manny being a Dodger". Like I said, 9 of my very own children. So by the time you go, live, at home field, to one of their games, you have so much personally invested in this team, you can't help
New England clam chowder
Is that the red, or the white?but feel your heart race from the moment those New England Olympiads pathetically toss the first pitch out (no wonder US didn't get gold in baseball).
The best part is, every spectator at Fenway Park feels the same familial affinity to the players, which means every spectator at Fenway Park is family to you too. It doesn't matter who you're sitting next to, you already like them. At least, as much as you like your own family. Gary and I had the irony of sitting next to a family from LA, just two hours away from where we live. They just love the Sox so much that they fly out to Boston to see them play.
The experience starts on Yawkey Way, where smokey food carts and souvenir sellers yell at the fans, all in somewhat-identical Red Sox gear. Speaking of Red Sox gear...before you get into the park you can walk through the Official Red Sox merchandise store, where anything that can have something printed on it is sold in Sox fashion (ps, there is also an Official Red Sox Cheeze Doodle). After you've satiated yourself with gear, you can watch the man on stilts (who's there every game)
toss baseballs around with the kids.
Even the bathroom stalls are painted green, thanks to the Green Monster. When I came out of the Green-Monstered bathroom, I couldn't immediately find Gary, and considered asking if anyone had seen my boyfriend, the "scruffy guy in a Red Sox jersey and ball cap". Ha ha.
The Star Spangled Banner, "root root root for the Red Sox", and Sweet Caroline feeling "so good", even the biggest baseball hater belts it out at Fenway.
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